Sunday, September 6, 2009

Sunday Sermon [Mass Psychosis]

¡Hola! Everybody...
Sometimes, not telling the truth is an act of moral cowardice...

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-=[ An Open Letter to Thinking Americans ]=-

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson


Neoconservatism is fanaticism; a political fundamentalism poisoning the intellectual vibrancy essential for a functional democracy. For the last 30-40 years, America’s anti-intellectual tradition has been magnified by a new species of mindless anti-rationalism. A fanaticism feeding on and fed by an ignorant demographic addicted to an avalanche of video images and an echo chamber of noise that leaves no room for reflection and logic.

Reason being the first fatality of fanaticism, one cannot successfully reason with a fanatic. Eventually, one comes to the inescapable realization that you cannot describe the universe to an individual who still thinks in pre-Copernican terms. While there should be room for reasoned social policy debate, the facts remain: the earth is round, the sun does not revolve around the earth, and, at least for people with relatively large forebrains, the theory of evolution is a foregone conclusion. Similarly, our singularly expensive and ineffective market-driven healthcare system has been an utter failure -- by any measure.

Neoconservatism is a mass psychosis masquerading as a political movement. A part of me always knew this, but I always left room to compensate for my own biases. A part of me held out hope that the angry, mostly uneducated whites, who comprise the spine of the movement, would somehow wake up to the fact that they are unwitting dupes in a class war that steals from them as much as anyone else. A class war headed by a minuscule fraction of our population: the ten percent that owns almost all of the wealth in this country.

The people of this movement, driven by fear and hate, will never wake up.

There is no reason to take the Republican Party seriously. It has become a parade of one political folly after another. The GOP is the developmentally challenged child of a warped political movement. My less politically radical friends like to talk about historical context -- how what goes for conservatism today really isn’t conservatism. Nevertheless, the fact remains that it was American conservatism that has spent nearly four decades throwing open the doors to the asylum. Beginning with the Goldwater campaign in 1964 through the Reagan campaigns and presidency; the NCPAC campaigns of the same era; the marriage of cynicism with religious idiocy; the barrage of think tank junk science; the madness of Newt Gingrich’s contract on America; the various and sustained stupidities aimed at Clinton, all of culminating in the embarrassment of Bush the Idiot. All of this and more was and is modern conservatism taken to its illogical conclusion. Want to know neoconservtism? Look no further than the financial and social debris of the Bush II administration. Shit, I don’t know about you, but I think it’s a little late for sensitive conservative intellectuals to reflect how it was that all that monkey shit ended up on the walls.

Want to get an idea of the GOP’s “leadership”? Look at Dick Cheney, a moral coward of historical proportions, explain once again to a cowed media that one free mass casualty attack doesn’t count. Why hasn’t one journalist challenged Dick that by his own standard, every two-term president kept us safer than his guys did? That’s a lot like closing the barn door after the horses have gone.

Intelligent or even serious people don’t lead in that party, and the leaders of it (Michael Steele? Sarah Palin? Newt Gingrich?) are not serious people. It is a major political party run now as an elaborate public spectacle completely in the service of fanatical radio talk-show hosts. Why do serious political journalists take the out-of-control train wreck that is the Republican Party seriously, ignoring the evidence plainly in front of their own eyes? Even more baffling, why does a Democratic president, and an overwhelmingly Democratic congress, both elected at least in part because the country had determined that the Republicans had gone completely round the bend, care what these people think about anything? Why does a party led by people who think the president is going to hypnotize schoolchildren with his magical homosexual-loving-Socialist eyeballs scare the living shit out of the democrats?

The perfect should not be the enemy of the good?!! Shit! By my reckoning, the good has many legitimate enemies. Evil is the enemy of the good. Greed is the enemy of the good. Ignorance is the enemy of the good. Cowardice is the enemy of the good. How about we all worry, for once, about those enemies of the good -- all of which are evident in the campaign to make sure we never reform the morally reprehensible and criminally negligent manner in which we deliver healthcare in this country?

Instead, we get goobers advocating against their own self-interests on behalf of the same entities that will most likely deny them proper healthcare. Oh yeah, watch The Dems sign off on a castrated health reform bill and then run in 2010 on their support of what will amount to a massive giveaway to the insurance companies -- a group of institutions whom everyone I know hates. Of course, the corporate press will then deliberate incessantly on why the administration couldn’t work with “serious conservative voices” on a “bipartisan” plan, as though they even exist. The Glenn Beck “Socialism! Fascism! Communism! Nigger!” batshit cocksuckers will be conveniently forgotten heard in the background dutifully yelping, “We’re No. 1! We’re no. 1!”

Fuck them: you can’t reason with fanatics.

Eddie

15 comments:

  1. Hell yeah! I've been trying to wrap my head around this and wonder if the country is insane. It just blows my mind how a minority of stupid people can effectively impact the thought process of the populace. As a master salesman myself. I guess I can chalk it up to one helluva sales pitch better known as American Exceptional-ism.

    God bless the fools of America

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  2. Yo! Literally insane! Tomorrow, imma break it down for real.

    WATCH...

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  3. ppfftt what a load of crap .... talk to a fanatic like he/she is a fanatic and that is who they will be

    sermons are meant to be uplifting this blog is full of meaningless and useless anger

    its a decision you make not to put yourelf in the 10% of wealthy ppl who are responsible for the lack of change .... so as thats where your issue is ... start making the money so you can change, given this seems to be the ONLY way you think change will happen :)

    then blog about it

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  4. ps. the fact that rippa agrees with you should be a sure sign you are on the wrong track ;)

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  5. Zoe: It seems you caught a feeling, which a good thing, but you seem to have displaced your feeling... I should know better than to respond to a purely emotional comment, but what the hey... ?

    You say:
    "ppfftt what a load of crap .... talk to a fanatic like he/she is a fanatic and that is who they will be"

    Huh? This just doesn't make any sense at all. People aren't accountable for their actions? My take on human nature is different. If it smells like shit, then it IS shit.

    You stated:
    "sermons are meant to be uplifting this blog is full of meaningless and useless anger "

    First, I use the title "Sunday Sermon" in jest. I'm no man of the cloth... and who said sermons are supposed to be uplifting? Is there, like, a "sermon rulebook" somewhere? In any case, you should know by now I don't follow rules too well. It's what keeps me free of dogma. In any case, I always felt sermons were about telling the truth. In fact, imma make a sermon rule of thumb.

    You stated:
    "sermons are meant to be uplifting this blog is full of meaningless and useless anger "

    Now you have lost me completely.

    My issue isn't that people make money, but that some use ill-gotten wealth to dictate public policy. That's the basic definition of fascism, btw: rule by corporations. And that's where we're moving to as a nation, so excuse me if I don't sing kumbayah and pretend Rome isn't burning.

    As for making change happen? I fight my little fight. I create my little programs and I try to effect whatever little positive/ progressive change I can. Still doesn't make it right that 10% of the population controls 90% of the wealth in this country.

    It doesn't make it right that hundreds of thousands of people die needlessly in this country because greed, cowardice, and a blind adherence to dogma is more important than lives.

    Instead of catching a feeling about a sermon that failed to uplift you, maybe you should DO something with that feeling by directing it to the TRUTH I am trying to uncover. Maybe you need to look at the morally reprehensible way we do things and how we make little children suffer, for one example.

    Finally, no, you don't get to tell me how or what to blog about, sweetie.

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  6. LOL ... I love how you abnormally responded to a blog comment filled with emotion (in your view) ... WITH emotion ...

    I especially love how you tried to spur on some more emotion by closing being condescending :)

    Thing is, when you see someone a certain way, thats how you communicate with them and in turn how they respond to you (understanding this needs you to take some responsibility for how you communicate) so I guess I was agreeing with you, that if you go at a fanatic, knowing them (as you think u do) then that is how they will respond and why change doesn’t happen

    I get that you aren’t a man of cloth, Eddie :P however I always thought the reason for your blog was that we are one of the small % of change you try to create ..... also yah I agree a sermon is about telling the truth, I guess this blog is truth of your opinion not THE truth :)

    Plus while sermons quite often talk of the difficult my perception was that they were meant to be inspiring to some extent .... do you disagree?

    And ... FINALLY I get some feedback for my comments – do I need to disagree to get some love??? ;)

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  8. Oh and I am creating change eddie .... believe me and I am quite proud of it!!! However I wont be creating that with FEELING :) thats a waste of energy and peoples time

    I am creating it with integrity and courage .... and of course love and acceptance (minus the feeling most people associate with those words .... hmmm in typing that i wonder if passion to be the above is feeling or just is what it is?)

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  9. Zoe: you state:
    "..... also yah I agree a sermon is about telling the truth, I guess this blog is truth of your opinion not THE truth :)"

    Well, at the very least, I provided an empirical basis for my blog, complete with links and documentation. the truth is the truth, Zoe, and denial is the worst sin.

    Cheers

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  10. Zoe: you also state:
    "Thing is, when you see someone a certain way, thats how you communicate with them and in turn how they respond to you (understanding this needs you to take some responsibility for how you communicate) so I guess I was agreeing with you, that if you go at a fanatic, knowing them (as you think u do) then that is how they will respond and why change doesn’t happen"

    That's a bunch of crap. Fanatics are fanatics. They deny healthcare tom people, enact racist policies, they deny the humanity of anyone that doesn't agree with their dogma, incarcerate others based on the color of their skin.

    Knowledge is power, denial is a bitch. Some knowledge isn't pretty, but REAL change comes from looking wide-eyed into hell and speaking truth to power.

    No, the world isn't a nice or even fair place, but sticking your head in the sand and calling THAT change is, well, delusion.

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  11. OK so I guess what your telling me is my opinion is wrong, and in reality all I am doing is sticking my head in the sand and living in denial? LOL

    Thanks for your opinion. LOL You couldnt be more wrong about who I am or what I stand for or how I contribute.

    Knowledge is only power when used to create change, really all your blogs do is provide an excuse for why things are the way they are for anyone that is looking.

    Clearly you are very educated with lots of knowledge but you only think little, you only expect to make a little change, you said so yourself in your first response to me.

    So you have ALOT more knowledge than the average popolulation but arnt creating much ?!?!

    Seems like a bit of a contradiction to me.

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  13. Zoe: I wrote that a major political party is actually a fanatical movement. I added some documentation to support my assertion. I also stated the accepted wisdom that fanatics are beyond reason. This is a fact.

    All you did was state what I documented was crap. THAT'S ALL YOU DID.

    that is intellectually lazy at best. You didn't engage what I wrote, only your projection of it.

    Then you had the arrogance to assume you can tell me how and what to write.

    I wrote about fanaticism. Fanaticism is the inability to think critically, something that I see in your responses. Perhaps you should look at yourself before passing judgment on others.

    If you don't like my blogs, then don't read them. It REALLY is that simple.

    And I will be writing what I feel like on what topics I feel like writing in the manner I feel writing.

    Perhaps you can use this to write your own blogs instead of merely criticizing mine.

    Good luck.

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  14. Hey Eddie

    I can see that I have offended you in some way and I apologise, perhaps I came across as making you wrong in some way and to be overly critical in a way that offended, not my intent.

    I will state that I never said I don’t like your blog (s), and yes I think I know that I cannot read them :P but I chose to read and comment. If I am really honest with you I can see how much power you have and I just don’t think you are aware of what you are capable of accomplishing, I know you have a strong sense of self and purpose, but perhaps a frustration of what history tells you and that translates into a little bit of change on earth, I believe you are capable of being the force behind HUGE change.

    I always thought your blogs were open to comments, be they critical or with praise or otherwise, I am quite surprised at your responses to me. Perhaps I struck a nerve?

    I think that I did engage in your blog and I gave my opinion on fanaticism, I did disagree that you can’t change them, because as I said if you speak to anyone with a pre-conceived idea of who they are or how they will respond or by believing they are wrong, then you never get the response you are after instead you get the response you expect.

    I wasn’t disagreeing with the FACTS just your interpretation that they as a type of human are impossible to change.

    I agree I should be motivated to write blogs; however I am just not inspired at the moment, which is why I use my time on the computer to read blogs like yours.

    There was no judgment in my comments, merely a point of view that was open to change.

    Perhaps I will close in saying if you would prefer me not to read your blogs and comment I will respect your wishes.

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  15. Zoe: I am not offended in the sense that I have taken this personally, I haven't. Your first impulse was to say that what I wrote was a "load of crap." That's not criticism, it's an hominem attack. I have engaged disagreements on my blog before. I do, however, draw the line when I feel someone is not taking the time to understand what I have written before offering a critique. My rule of thumb is that one cannot agree or disagree with something until they UNDERSTAND it.

    In actuality, I have shown you more latitude than others because I like you. Most of the time, I'll tell someone to go fuck themselves, not out of anger, but mostly because I'm not here to convince anyone.

    A fanatic is a fanatic no matter how one communicates with them. I think nyou're try8ing to say that we create polarities by labelling people, and to a certrain extent, that is true. However, with fanatics, they come with a built in polarity, reason and critical thinking not being the hallmark of a fundamentalist mindset.

    I work with and struggle against this political fundamentalism on a daily basis, and believe me, I have tried. Good luck with your approach, been there, done that.

    For my part, I have come to the hard-won realization that reasoning with a fanatic is impossible. I refuse to engage them or mediate with them. In a very real sense, that kind of thinking cost lives.

    Finally, I appreciate the sentiment, but I think you give me too much credit. I have no power. All I'm trying to do is be part of a transformational process.

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